Jack Oliver Petch.

Het Water Ensemble, Zurenborg.

The architecture project - ’Het Water Ensemble’, situated in Zurenborg, Antwerp - addresses a set of specific design issues with the context of the city and the context of the interior. This was a graduation project from the interiors, buildings, cities chair at the technical university of Delft, in the Nethrlands. 

After looking into the local history, a corner of three elements with one missing, revealed a microcosm of information to design from. The site is perfect corner of Zurenborg that was planned but never manifested.

At the urban scale, the proposal is a brick tower and garden wall, a facade dealing with the different conditions of the corner or the courtyard hiding a treasure-filled world behind.

The typology of the programme, known as either ‘the alchemical rehabilitation centre’ or a ‘water palace of perfect rooms’ (depending what side of the record is on the turntable), has brought on a third research question onto the project. Every stage of the design brought the question how theory of alchemical transformation through elements could be implemented. This manifested as specific rooms, each with physical and tactile qualities, relating to the wild and bombastic character of the surrounding area.